Eleven Cool Noodle Dishes Perfect for Summer

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The lines at noodles joints like Totto Ramen and Ippudo rarely die down, but there’s something about slurping hot broth on a 90-plus-degree summer day that seems off. Lucky, then, that New York is full of cooler options to satisfy the city’s ravenous Asian noodle fans: ramen and soba specials that crop up this time of year, Koreatown’s chilly naeng myeon beef noodle soup … even a few chilly noodles from Smorgasburg.

1. Liang Pi Coldskin NoodlesWhere to get it:Xi’an Famous Foods
Some of the city’s best-loved cool noodles can be found at Xi’an’s various NYC outposts, where jagged, hand-cut strips of chewy wheat noodle are tossed in a fiery sesame-oil dressing, spongy wheat-gluten nubs, cilantro, cucumber, and bean sprouts. It’s vegan, and at under five bucks, it’s also one of the cheapest healthy meals we know.Related:The Cheap List [NYM]

2. Cold miso ramenWhere to get it:Minca
In summer, this East Village ramen favorite usually offers cold noodle specials. Right now that means a bowl of noodles in chilled miso broth topped with chicken, corn, hard-boiled egg, mushrooms, and a pile of bean sprouts and bamboo strips.

3. Cold soba noodlesWhere to get it:Cocoron
When the temperature rises, Cocoron’s signature soba bowls (oroshi, kimchee, etc.) can be made cold — some are served dipping style and some arrive in a cool broth. Look for daily specials like a lettuce-and-veggie soba salad, and a spin on the Sichuan dish bang bang ji chicken: shredded meat tossed in spicy sesame sauce over buckwheat noodles.

4. Cold rice noodleWhere to get it:Yu Nan Flavour Snack
When it’s hot (or even when it’s not), your best bet at this no-frills Sunset Park spot is the cold, bouncy rice noodles tossed with sweet-spicy-sour sauce and little bits of meat and cilantro on garnish duty.
Related: From Hunan to Yunnan [NYM]

5. Cold buckwheat noodles with saladWhere to get it:Vanessa’s Dumpling House (Williamsburg only)
Baby-greens salad and a nice cool bowl of soba noodles, tossed together in a sesame dressing and topped with sesame seeds.

6. Cold beef soupWhere to get it:Vanessa’s Dumpling House (Williamsburg only)
More substantial than the salad-and-noodle combo, this is cold beefy broth strewn with julienned carrots and cucumber and topped with beef strips and hard-boiled egg — plus, of course, strands of linguinelike wheat noodles.

7. Mazeman ramenWhere to get it:Yuji Ramen at Smorgasburg
Chef Yuji Haraguchi isn’t cooking at Kinfolk Studios any longer, but you can still get his stellar brothless mazeman ramen (a style that’s having a moment in Tokyo) at Smorgasburg each Saturday. Haraguchi cooks seasonally, meaning the uni-miso variety we adored at Kinfolk won’t be back till next spring — for now it’s all about summer vegetables, he tells us, in combinations like corn and bacon or sweet pea and prosciutto.

8. Cold noodle and sesame sauceWhere to get it:Shorty Tang & Sons at Smorgasburg
Another cool-noodle Smorg option is these classic sesame noodles, which had their heyday in the seventies and eighties, at Tang Tang’s, among other places. The dish is simple: spaghetti-like noodles in a sesame-chili-peanut sauce topped with scallions.

11. Chilled buckwheat noodlesWhere to get it:Mission Chinese Food
Since everything else at Danny Bowien’s San Francisco import is knobs-to-eleven spicy, a plate of these frosty — and mercifully mild — strands is practically a necessity. Mission mixes up the cold soba formula by adding yuba to the sauce and heat-sapping grated oroshi to the toppings.Related:Platt on Pok Pok Ny and Mission Chinese Food [NYM]